


Thunder In the Sky

by Missy



Category: Ghost Riders in the Sky - Johnny Cash (Song)
Genre: Advice, Backstory, Eternal Punishments, Gen, Infidelity, Murder, Parental Disapproval, Theft, Trick or Treat: Trick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:55:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27173423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: The stories of a few ghost riders.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 13
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	Thunder In the Sky

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RobberBaroness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobberBaroness/gifts).



Kip moved his neighbor’s fence a few inches every few years. There was a range war going on, you see. It couldn’t be helped that he had to get ahead of the competition, just a little. He didn’t mean any harm by it, even though, inch by inch, the thick sweet grass his neighbor needed to feed his cattle disappeared over feet of barbed wire.

Soon the cattle started disappearing from his neighbor’s herd, head by head. It wasn’t greed, he insisted. Just trying to stay afloat. Just trying to keep himself from sinking under.

The law didn’t see it that way. 

Neither did the devil.

*** 

Jim had a gal in every country. Gorgeous things with big, beautiful eyes and soft, sensitive hearts. A redhead in Abilene, a brunette in El Paso, a blonde in Jackson. He toyed with them until he broke their hearts, shattered their souls like panes of boiled sugar on the cold ground. One cold night, they gathered together and knocked him out cold, planning to hold him up for the gains he’d won ill in a stagecoach robbery. But the blow was a little too hard. 

The lesson they taught Jim was a permanent one.

But anyone knows that the hardest lesson comes with judgment day.

*** 

Dory’s story wasn’t even that interesting. He shot a man who cheated him in a card game. He went to his grave insisting that he didn’t do anything wrong. That’s probably why he’s the oldest soul on the drive. Always insisting he never did anything wrong – always refusing to take help as the cattle slip just out of his grip. Always searching for something he’ll never touch, he’ll never see. 

**** 

Patrick had a handsome boy with silver eyes. The sweetest kid. But Patrick was never pleased with his boy – the one who was too different, the one who decided to become a gambler instead of a land baron. Patrick rejected that kid and died alone due to his own selfishness.

When he saw the cowboy lost and alone on the plain that day, Patrick knew. He took one look at the man sitting under those storm clouds, silver eyes flashing up at him, his tired old jeans cuffed at the ankle, and saw his own child. Then with every last drop of energy he had left, he urged the boy to change his ways – to follow his dreams to salvation. The only gift a father estranged might give.

As the hoof beats drove endlessly against his eardrums, he hoped sincerely he’d never see the boy again.


End file.
